“Clear sight” a blessing some of us are deprived of. The routine dependence on contacts or glasses can be sickening, particularly if it hampers outdoor activities like sports and adventure. To help people with imperfect vision, there have been various scientific advents. LASIK (Laser in-situ keratomileusis) is the oldest, while ReLex SMILE (Refractive Lenticule Extraction & Small incision lenticule extraction) is one of the latest.
LASIK is the laser refractive procedure which may has advantages like postoperative improvement and stabilization of visual acuity, but has its own share of drawbacks.
LASIK is not just painful but some of the patients may also suffer from side effects such as dry eyes, reduced vision in low lighting conditions. Visual distortions such as glare and haloes can still occur, while flap-related complications, inflammation, or infection in few if not many cases have been found to have serious consequences.
There exist better options
The ‘blade-free’ version of LASIK that uses femtosecond lasers has been a one of the major advancements in the recent times. But ReLex SMILE could be described as more advanced and much better technology. This has been available for some time now and has provided some of the most encouraging results which might not have been possible with basic LASIK. Introduced as a single laser refractive procedure without the use of a laser, ReLex SMILE is a single-step, single instrument operation. ReLex SMILE uses tissue removal instead of tissue ablation and it achieves a high precision of cutting. This contributes to the predictability of the procedure.
ReLex SMILE is an advanced technology which provides potentially a more accurate ablation. This is because it does not requires a retractable flap, thus reducing the surgical time. It also reduces the patient’s inconvenience of moving from one laser to another, as required in LASIK. Moreover, initial clinical results have also been promising, which found that postoperative refractive outcomes after ReLex SMILE were much better. Also the safety and efficacy of ReLex SMILE have been confirmed by various reach studies.
How is Relex SMILE better than LASIK?
ReLex SMILE is a novel form of ‘flapless’ corneal refractive surgery and is one of the most modern technologies available today. It uses only one femtosecond laser to complete the refractive surgery, potentially reducing surgical time and side effects. This technology could potentially and completely replace LASIK in the future. Just as good, or even better than LASIK in terms of refractive outcome, ReLex SMILE also has additional benefits, such as reduction in higher-order aberrations that leads to better quality of vision.
Source: https://drrajeshhospitals.wordpress.com/2014/08/25/relexsmile/
